NPSL Media

Roberts’ Late Heroics Leads New Orleans Jesters to Road Win

Jesters midfielder Oliver Roberts scored a stoppage time goal to lead the New Orleans Jesters to a 2-1 victory against Greenville FC Wednesday night.

After a first half with few opportunities by either side, the Jesters opened the scoring in the 48th minute on a goal by Mason Walsh, where he retained possession inside the Greenville defensive third before finding space and drilling a right footed shot into the lower corner.

Walsh has now scored in back-to-back matches.

“He actually defended the ball quite well but he slipped, but I carried on going and I chased after the ball and managed to cut inside and slip it away near post”

Greenville FC turned up the pressure and were rewarded when left back Garrett Bridgewater banged in the equalizer in the 82nd minute.

From there it appeared both teams were headed to a point apiece. But in the 91st minute, Roberts found room at the top of the 18 and uncorked a shot that knuckled past Austin Millins for the game-winner.

“I have been practicing it recently getting the ball to dip and swerve,” Roberts said about his knuckling shot. “Samir (Bihmoutine) gave me an overlapping run and the defenders went with him and it opened it up for me and I kicked it as hard as I could and it moved a lot into the back of the net. Last minute goal to win the game for the boys. I am delighted.”

“Late on I thought OK we are getting out of here with a point, and I didn’t see the next one coming,” Jesters head coach Kenny Farrell said of the goal and his joking inspiration of Roberts. “But I had said to Oliver at halftime, ‘if you don’t leave the pitch with one or two long-range shots, you and I are going to have words.’ And I could see when he got the ball in that area and he took two or three touches to set himself up, I said to myself this shot is coming and I hope he hits it as well as he can. And we look at each other afterwards, and I said ‘if you hadn’t taken that shot you would have been in trouble.”

New Orleans splits the season series with Greenville FC and improve their overall record to 6-3-2. The Jesters continue their swing through the Carolinas when they visit Asheville City SC Friday night at 6:00 pm Central Time.